<p>I just got accepted for the seven-year program. But they offered me only $10K scholarship. It is way too expensive for me. I am depressed and do not know what to do.</p>
<p>Seems to be the price you need to pay in return for a guaranteed sopt on medschool. Just a speculation, but the cost of attendance for the same UG school may be 150-200% of the cost to attend as a regular UG student. No proof or anything, just my feeling – if you are the finaid offcer making finaid offers, what would you do? They need to balance between total number and cost charged on family in such a way to ‘maximize’ their revenue. The students coming in on a combined program are those who they need to court the least – there are plenty of others who are willing to pay whatever is necessary for this guaranteed spot.</p>
<p>BU is much more expensive than any other accelerated med program. There has to be a point where the astronomical cost of going there is not worth being in the program. Graduating med school with such huge debt may not be worth it. With medicine the way it is today it would be impossible to ever make up the amount due after graduation. Students that get into this program are such high caliber students that they would have a lot of choices of other UG schools that would give them near full tuition. Because they are top students they will get into medical school anyway. This program is not worth being in such huge debt. BU needs to give these exemplary students merit aid if they want them to come! I have seen on CC kids with much lower academic credentials that have gotten merit aid. If they want you they have to help you!</p>
<p>i’m in the same boat… USC interviewed me for a full scholarship and their 8 year but BU won’t give me a dime of merit aid…interesting…</p>
<p>In general, applicants with comparable qualification will get merit aid more easily if applying for the UG only than for the combined BS/MD. From the school’s standpoint, the combined admission is as valuable a tool as the merit aid in attracting highly qualified students. I do not believe any such objective data is available, but I suspect such is the case with many combined programs like BU, Univ. Rochester, NU, CWRU, etc. When the program is not within a single university, the combined program is used to attract top students to UG schools which will never attract such students otherwise — SB/GWU, UPitt programs, etc. It is a very valuable tool to recruit top students and they will rarely put two most valuable resources (BS/MD program, and top Merit Aid) onto a single student – that will be an exceptional case, IMO.</p>
<p>toughyear: Unfortunately for a lot of us, you’re right. I know at BU specifically they only give one trustee scholarship (full tuition) to a student also accepted to the seven-year ba/md program per year. I heard this directly from one of the advisor’s for the trustee scholar program. The reason he gave me was that before they put this restriction in place, for a few years there was a huge overlap in trustee scholars and ba/md students (makes sense since students who apply to either are usually very qualified). </p>
<p>Because BU usually uses the trustee scholarship to attract high caliber students and uses the ba/md program to attract high caliber talent as well, it didn’t make sense to have that much overlap. Thus, they only have 1 per year now. They do meet full financial need usually, but in terms of merit aid they usually don’t offer ba/md students more than 10k. And since BU gets about 24-30 students to come to the program, with most all the students picking BU over other institutions offering more merit aid and Ivies, BU really has no reason to change their policy.</p>
<p>I’m not as well aware about the policies of other individual schools, but based on my own admission decisions a few years ago and what I’ve heard from other people, many ba/md schools probably do the same thing to varying degrees.</p>
<p>johnstoops, it only makes sense. The ba/md program and the top merit aids are both the main incentives the school has at its disposal attracting top talents. Why would they do things that will give surely reduce its impact for their school? Different schools have the program for different reasons and a given program has at least two different reasons – one reason is printed on their website or spoken publicly to the applicants; and another reason exists only in the adcom’s mind and spoken only among themselves behind the closed doors. I think this second reason is spoken through the financial offers they make or conditions they specify in the admission letters. Anyway, it all comes down to … is it worth the cost? etc.</p>
<p>I was accepted to BU (not for the accelerated med program), and they basically asked me to pull 200 grand out of my ass for the next four years should I decide to enroll. With the prospect of taking out loans in medical school, the astronomical debt set from UNDERGRAD is not worth it. I would not do it. At all. </p>
<p>Don’t you have, like, 20 other BS/MD acceptances anyway? </p>
<p>…and I thought I was lucky enough to be invited for one interview.</p>
<p>the way to go to save some money is the PSU/Jefferson program!</p>
<p>…or any bs/md at state schools. D’s UG portion was tuition free.<br>
Congrats to acceptance anyway!! They are very hard to get in but worthwhile (at least from D’ s experience).</p>
<p>We got the Trustee Scholarship at USC (full-ride) but no Keck interview. Case gives you $10K. BU asked us to designate them as the NMF, hoping for the 1/2 tuition scholarship. But the fine line says must name BU by 3/1, to JUST be CONSIDERED. Could have used that for Rice or some other schools for $1K/yr.<br>
If at $60K/yr, the BU MD costs $420K. In this job market, lower physician pay and some physician glut, recuperating that money which could be used/invested elsewhere is tough to choose.
Do we take BU, Case/Brown (if lucky to get in), Penn/Cornell/Columbia and Stanford (pending till 4/1)?
Only if we were just poorer (to qualify for need-based) or smarter/luckier (to qualify for the single Trustee merit scholarship had we applied) or less competitive with no aspiration to combined programs (traditional route).
Many traditional candidates getting huge grants/scholarships with lesser credentials is exasperating.
BU 7-yr would be nice, but likely and regrettably will have to pass, as several others have indicated in this and past years because of affordability.
NEVER THOUGHT THE DECISION WOULD BE THIS DIFFICULT. WHEN ALL BEGAN, ANY COMBINED PROGRAM IS A DREAM SCHOOL.</p>
<p>^consider also this: a guy from cornell with 3.93 GPA and 37 Mcat, got in (a couple ?) top 20 medschools. Both GPA and Mcat he scored are very very tough to earn. After Ivy UG, if you get in top 35 medschools thats fairly good.</p>
<p>^FYI - Case usually gives tons of Merit $$ when you are accepted to UG there. You have to be accepted to UG to get to PPSP. My D. got large Merit package from Case, we would pay only $5k / year, if she choose Case. She got rejected pre-interview from PPSP (bs/md) at Case, so she went to another bs/md on full tuition Merit scholarship. Ironically, Case Medical school has accepted her when she applied out of her bs/md to several Med. Schools. Case Medical School also indicated that she will get some Merit $$, but they did not say how much.
So, you still have a good chance to be where you want thru regular route. Best wishes in your UG, whichever one you choose.</p>
<p>col2ca,
D. got into 2 top 20 Med. Schools from State school (not flagship) with lower MCAT than 37.</p>
<p>MiamiDAp, hello, your D has done very well! Did she decide to stay at Miami or did she move onto another medschool? I was referring to norcalguy in the premed forum (i am not sure if i heard him right – its in one of his posts). A right combination of academics (GPA, MCAT, Research), clinical (lots of medical related activities incl. shadowing, volunteering, indepth experience), and ECs are necessary and I am not sure if going to the Ivies is any advantage over state schools. my sons are in premed and its not easy. my nephew, who is in 4th yr residency had a 3.99 GPA when graduating from college, a state school, but did not get in any top 20 schools (only one interview), so it must have been his ECs, etc. Unfortunately, the prestige of UG school seems to count little in evaluating the GPA. So, students should know, when thinking top UG schools, that the name does not give any advantage – maybe some select opportunities such as research opps. Your D must have had a near ideal combination of stat/experience plus personal traits (shown in Essays and Interviews).</p>
<p>Golfblackhole,</p>
<p>Did your D get accepted to any other programs? Where is she from? Did you consider in-state BS/MD options? Samething happened to me at U of Miami, they have named me as the finalists in two full-tuition scholarships and they denied my admission for HPME program. It was a shocker. In contrary, I have been accepted at RPI/Albany and Boston U. The RPI is making decision on my FA package next week. I have to wait. Boston U has offered me the same deal like your D. The good news, I am the only child and my parents are willing out to help me to an extent with my college expense. Nothing close to 400K. </p>
<p>I have one viable option. Just accept my admission to USF/USF seven-year program and end up with less than 100K in debt when I finish my MD. Still I am waiting to hear from few programs including Harvard and Yale. Good luck and stay in touch.</p>
<p>^In response to Research opportunities, D. had no problem getting great Med. Research internship in area of personal interest also at her UG. She is at different Miami that you think. Her UG does not even have Med. School and opportunities for her still were awesome, including incredible job as Gen. Chem assistant and whatever she wished and more. From D’s experience, I would say that she would have had much less opportunites at elite school. Her UG state school appreciated having her very much, she got her job even without applying, was offerred on a spot. Also her pre-med advisory was top notch so her application went earlier than lots of others at different schools, which is extremely important.</p>
<p>Her bs/md has Cinci College of Medicine and has been cancelled at D’s UG. She is not considering Cinci College of Medicine anymore. Cinci is a very good Med. school, in particular if one considering pediatrics. However, D. did not care for urban location of school.
She has 3 other choices, 2 in top 20 as I have mentioned and another few spots below. All of them are very good and 2 have promised some Merit scholarships. She is going for Second Look and then she will decide.<br>
I would say, research school before deciding, visit, talk to current pre-meds. It is an advantage to be in bs/md, since it releases lots of pressure, but not very many allow to apply out and retain a spot - this was one of the main attractions for my D. And if you do well in UG regular route, the sky is a limit.</p>
<p>@Golfblackhole,
I feel your ‘pain’. Your family and your D will have to put all options in front of you, figure out the costs/risks and benefits/rewards of each school and each program, keep a prayerful mind but be ice cold in critically analyzing each option, then see how each option fare on a relative scale amongst all options. THEN choose the ONE that comes first. Life is uncertain to an extent, always. Also, having a few options to choose from is a blessing than a curse. Good luck to you and your D.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why merit aid is given to undergrads but not accelerated med program students?
The students I see on the BU forums are much less qualified than the med program students. The combined program ends up being so much money it might not be worth going.</p>
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<p>This has been explained many times. They are already offering you something valuable: the guarantee. There’s no need to give you a merit scholarship on top of that. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.</p>